Dry, disposable paper tissues are in widespread use for a variety of cleaning operations. More recently, pre-moistened tissues have been proposed or introduced. Typically, pre-moistened sheets are individually folded and wrapped in plastic or in metal-foil type packets. Because of the lack of wet strength of paper tissues, these pre-moistened, individually packaged tissue packets are generally heavy and not dispensed from a continuous roll. This is wasteful and not in keeping with sound ecological practices, since single sheet packaging requires a large amount of nonbiodegradable plastic and/or metal-foil wrapping materials.
More recently, there have been attempts to introduce into the marketplace pre-moistened tissues that are interleaved like dry tissues. These are packaged in a container having a foil sealing member to prevent moisture loss while the container is on the shelf. In use, the foil is removed and the tissues are removed one at a time as use dictates. Interleaving is designed to permit ease of removal of the second tissue after the first is used. In one embodiment there is no replacement lid for the foil seal, and thus the package when once opened, tends to dry out rapidly. Other proposals have called for providing a tissue box type of plastic dispenser having a single lid with a conventional slot. However, this is only slightly improved over the removable foil lid type of assembly since the second tissue, being exposed through the slot, will dry. The continuous wicking action of the tissue fibers causes the moisture in the towelettes within the box to migrate to the dry tip of the exposed towelette. The entire contents of the tissue box dry out relatively rapidly. Further, the tissue box lids are not tight-fitting, and additional moisture loss may occur at the juncture between the lid and the box walls.
One attempt to overcome the problems of the continuous drying out through wicking or moisture vapor loss through lack of proper-fitting container lids has been to provide an excess of fluid along with the towelettes. This is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,310,353, 3,368,522 and 3,592,161. Each of these patents discloses a dispenser having a roll of towelette, either free rolling or mounted on a central spindle, partially immersed in excess fluid, or fluid contained in association with the dispenser for wetting the towel just prior to final dispensing. The latter approach is similar to the paper tape type of dispenser in which the paper tape passes over a wetted roller to moisten the glue just prior to use.
A variation of this approach is to provide a coreless tissue roll disposed upright in a cylindrical container containing excess fluid. The towel is withdrawn from the center of the core and passed through a special inverted conical or slanted top opening that provides a special sealing and cutting action.
Both of these excess fluid proposals have the disadvantage of requiring substantial amounts of fluid to be placed into the container upon manufacture and shipped with the container. In the three aforementioned patents, and the vertically oriented coreless towel dispenser, there does not appear to be positive means for preventing leakage of the excess fluid during transportation, such as would occur upon stacking of the cartons upside down. Further, the excess fluid could result in leaching of chemicals, such as soaps or medicaments, where those materials are not in equilibrium concentration in the liquid. Also, excess fluid may tend to reduce the wet strength of the towelette, requiring even heavier material which in turn may not be flushable after use, and therefore causing problems with plumbing fixtures. They are also less adaptable to medicinal uses where a soft towelette with good hand is required in order not to cause irritation to the skin area treated.
There is thus a need for a roll-type moist towelette dispenser containing a plurality of individual towelette sheets which are individually separable from a continuous roll in a use-convenient type dispenser which has long shelf life and provides for intermediate sealing after each towelette is used, and which can accept replacement towelette rolls independent from the dispenser itself.